Sal Navarra: Le Montage venue boss’s anger at COVID restrictions
A venue boss and brides-to-be have slammed the NSW Government, accusing them of double standards in letting the SCG Test go ahead while slashing numbers at weddings.
Inner West
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Venue boss Sal Navarra has taken a swipe at the NSW Government questioning how thousands can attend the SCG Test while he is forced to stand staff down because of the latest 100-person limit at weddings.
Mr Navarra said it is not only damaging his industry but also causing immense stress and suffering for brides and grooms to be.
His company Navarra Venues owns venues including Curzon Hall in Marsfield and Le Montage in Lilyfield.
Mr Navarra said planning a wedding is a “once in a lifetime event” for his customers.
“It’s not that simple to just shut it down or reduce numbers and go on,” Mr Navarra said in a lengthy post on his website on Monday night.
He said the events and hospitality industry had taken another massive hit at the start of the new year with the government announcing renewed restrictions on weddings.
“While we are doing our best to support the NSW Government, it’s not easy when decisions that cause so much havoc are made with no warning or consultation,” the Navarra Venues chief executive said.
“The week before these latest restrictions, a decision was made to go from the 2sqm rule to the 4sqm rule which caused its own problems; now we’ve been capped to 100 people with 12 hours’ notice to brides and grooms which means they have had to un-invite so many guests the day before their wedding.”
In his post he also slammed the government for giving the green light for the SCG Test when he has been forced to cut back on his staff.
“It’s hard not to believe this when 10,000 people can go to the cricket, thousands of people can be in shopping centres, restaurants are full of happy customers and cinemas are packed with no policing (...)
“I have had to once again reduce our staff hours and stand staff down because of the changes.”
Mr Navarra’s comments come just days after police fined a Fairfield venue for holding a wedding with more than 600 people.
As of the latest restrictions, weddings are limited to one person per 4sqm and up to a maximum of 100 people.
Bride-to-be Annalisa Mastrofilippo, who is due to get married at Le Montage, said it was a case of ‘double standards” with the Sydney test match getting the green light.
The 25-year-old said: “The NSW logic is that we can sit in a whole football ground with strangers but we can’t be with people we see everyday, know where they’ve been and know who they are.”
The western Sydney woman had to postpone her dream wedding from last August to this April due to the restrictions. Now, she is unsure what the situation will be in three months.
If her wedding was to go ahead under the current restrictions she said it would be “impossible” to replan and cut 250 people from her 350 guest list.
She explained she and her partner Domenic were from large Italian families.
“We wouldn’t be able to cut out 250 people. That would mean cutting out aunties, uncles, first cousins. Neither of us can do that.
“We are both very family oriented. To not have everyone at our wedding would go against our culture.”
Postponing the wedding for eight months has also set the couple back a staggering $15,000.
“We had to move around all our suppliers and certain ones weren’t available for our second date. Anyone who couldn’t change we lost money from. It’s been a big expense.”
“Plus our invites were already done and printed for our first date so we had to reprint them.”
She said the hardest part was forward planning a wedding in April when things can change at any minute.
“It's coming up to that time where we have to hand out our invitations.
“We have printed invites for 350 guests. Now do we hand out all 350 or only 100 if the current restrictions stay the same? We don't know what to do.”
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